Teaser Tuesday: The Visitor, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, & And I Darken

I always enjoyed a brisk stroll downtown where the magnolias were already in bloom and the city's past lurked on every cobbled street corner. On those days when I arrived before dawn, I loved to pause on the Battery to watch the sun come up over the harbor. In that quiet time as the ghosts floated back through the veil and the tourists slept soundly in their beds, I had the city to myself.

"I am your father. But that woman is not your mother. Your mother is the very earth we go to now, the land I am prince of. Do you understand?" Lada looked up into her father's eyes, deep-set and etched with years of cunning and cruelty. She nodded, then held out her hand. "The daughter of Wallachia wants her knife back." Vlad smiled and gave it to her.